President Donald Trump’s first travel ban has resulted in about 2,000 documented U.S. citizens to be stopped at airports in only nine days, Newsweek reports.
A new report from U.S. Customs and Border Protections shows that of the 1,903 men and women its agents stopped for secondary inspections between January 27, 2017, and February 4, 2017, 1,457 of them – or about 77 percent – were legal, permanent residents of the United States. Of the other 446 people, around 134 withdrew their request for entry into the country.
Trump’s first travel ban went into effect just one week after he took office, when he signed an executive order blocking refugees as well as visa and green card holders from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the U.S. As a result, mass protests erupted across the country and the ban entered a complicated legal battle involving the Supreme Court.
“The Constitution and acts of Congress confer on the President broad authority to prevent aliens abroad from entering this country when he deems it in the nation’s interest,” solicitor general Noel Francisco wrote in his argument in favor of the ban, which he said was necessary to “protect national security.”
In February, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decided in a 9-4 vote that the third and latest version of Trump’s original executive order also violated the Constitution, arguing that it’s “tainted with animus toward Islam.”
“On a fundamental level, the Proclamation second-guesses our nation’s dedication to religious freedom and tolerance,” Chief Justice Roger Gregory wrote in his majority opinion.
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